Elements 6 - RAW compression to jpeg

H

Hayleyrigg

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Edit My Images
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I have been shooting in RAW for a little while but need to go back and compress them to good quality jpeg files - about 3mb I guess.

I am trying to do this in Photoshop Elements 6.0 using the multiple file processing tool. My problem is getting the right balance on dpi and quality of jpeg in the choices you get to get a jpeg around 3mb - the files I get seem to vary massively between less than 1mg and 36mb!

Please help!

Thanks
 
First ignore DPI. It's really irrelevant for what you are doing. It's the file size thats important. Leave the DPI alone to what ever it defaults to. It's probably the resizing that's screwing things up

If you have a 10Mpixel camera that should produce a file around 30 Mb

Good quality jpegs need to be about 10% of the size of the original file. this is normaly around 10-12 in Photoshop terms. However you can still get a wide variation as the amount of compression depends on the subject. You could get a file around 2.5Mb or upto 3.5Mb. This is normal.
 
A small question.....

Why do you need the jpg files?

As noted above forget the ppi setting (note it's pixels per inch not dpi which is a printer setting).

You should get consistent sizes if you export the RAW file (without cropping) and save as a jpg quality 10.

If you crop the image, the file will be smaller.

Once you have the crop (or original) you want, try not to resample the image (that is add/subtract pixels). Adding pixels can mean huge files.
 
I have been shooting in RAW for a while, as i try to become more serious about my photography but the PC memory I am using is massive. I am converting to jpeg to then delete my RAW images :(

I realise this might be criminal to you guys but the truth of the matter is that i just don't have the knowledge to use / adjust a RAW so am going to go back to what I know.

Will Elements still give me some editing powers with jpeg files. Like all these things it is finding the time to learn the tools!

Thanks
 
Well I'd say NEVER delete the RAWs that really is crazy!! Buy a portable drive and save your raws there. They are very cheap these days.

Elements will allow you to edit jpg files but not to the same degree as a RAW file.
 
woooooahhhh!!!

Dont delete your raws! These files contain ALL the data, uncompressed etc.

The most simple solution is to buy an external hard drive, just got a western digital 250gb for £70 from amazon.

Keep your raws organised on this, import them to Elements 6 (you may want to give lightroom a try as the workflow is so easy even i can use it), do your adjustments then export jpeg on level 12 (or whatever the highest level is. The files should vary around the 3mb approx. This will give you a high quality jpeg file.

Deleting your raw files is like throwing away the old negaives from a film. Alternativley, burn your raw files to a disk.

I highly recommend the 'missing manual' elements book. Excellent reference for any elemens 6 stuff. Has really helped me with layer, gradient masks, selective colouring. Its worth it and amazon is pretty cheap.
 
gpc1 said:
woooooahhhh!!!

Dont delete your raws! These files contain ALL the data, uncompressed etc.

The most simple solution is to buy an external hard drive, just got a western digital 250gb for £70 from amazon.

Keep your raws organised on this, import them to Elements 6 (you may want to give lightroom a try as the workflow is so easy even i can use it), do your adjustments then export jpeg on level 12 (or whatever the highest level is. The files should vary around the 3mb approx. This will give you a high quality jpeg file.

Deleting your raw files is like throwing away the old negaives from a film. Alternativley, burn your raw files to a disk.

I highly recommend the 'missing manual' elements book. Excellent reference for any elemens 6 stuff. Has really helped me with layer, gradient masks, selective colouring. Its worth it and amazon is pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

I agree although £70 for a 250Gb drive?! That is expensive You can buy a 750Gb for around £75 these days.

250Gb drives are now less than £50.
 
Can I also endorse the comments about not deleting your RAW files. Yes I also understand your frustration if you are having problems editing RAW files. It can be daunting at first, but it really does get easier.

Maybe all you need is a bit of help, and after all this is what forums like this are for.

Can I ask what camera you have and how are you currently processing the RAW files, plus what do you find the problem is in converting them. Lets see if we can't sort this out for you(y)
 
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